Labor Blames Government for Loss of Springbreakers

(Acapulco, El Sur 28 February) Antelmo Alvarado García, the head of the Guerrero office of the Mexican Confederation of Labor, the country’s largest labor group, accused the embattled Federal Secretary of Tourism Promotion, Gloria Guevara, of incompetence because the Spring Break tourist market in Acapulco has been lost. Alvarado is also a substitute senator for the PRI in Guerrero. He said that the government evidently does not know what to do in the face of the organized crime violence that has been slamming Mexico in general, and so they have elected to do nothing at all. Alvarado appealed to the tourism promotion agencies of government to make a promotion strategy so that the Spring Break market segment is not totally and permanently lost.

Marcelo Ebrard, governor of the Federal District and a PRD luminary has made recommendations to Governor-elect Aguirre concerning a new state secretary of tourism development. When the press asked Alvarado García about this, rejected the idea, being a good PRI soldier who would never approve an idea of the political opposition. “I think we have capable people in Guerrero,” he said, “We don’t need outsiders.”

The problem is that tourism promotion is one of the “safe places” to which a winning politician can appoint a crony seeking political patronage. The labor leader added his name to those of many in the tourist sector who have petitioned Ángel Aguirre that he not “leave the fate of tourism in Guerrero” to someone who is just being paid a political debt. Because it is Guerrero´s most important economic activity, the new state secretary of tourism promotion should be someone who comes from the sector and is respected as a professional in the field.